 | | The Erik Lajko Blues Punk Band |
Frantic strumming, an urgent tune on the kazoo, and then confident singing. If Tom Waits was to do a high-speed impersonation of George Formby, this is what it might sound slightly like. Passers-by are passing-by. Many of them are laughing at the eccentric music. Many, as I did, laugh and then stop and look. I was not expecting to hear something like this on New Street, Friday, 5.30pm.  | | Erik Lajko on New Street |
There’s a young man in a beret, low down on a small folding seat, hunched over a battered child’s guitar. His left hand is blurred across the toy’s strings. He’s the one emitting the loud, cheerful noise. I can’t make out the lyrics he’s singing, there’s the odd burst of English, I think. I don’t recognize any of the songs he’s performing. A light wire frame holds the kazoo near his mouth.  | | The Erik Lajko Blues Punk Band |
Another person stops to listen, then another. Groups of young people crowd around him, laughing and shaking their heads. Then the intensity of his performance seems to win them over, too. Soon they’re recording him with their mobile phones and dropping their spare change into his hat on the pavement. In the 20 minutes I spent watching him, it seemed that people of all ages and races were dropping coins into the hat of this unusual busker. I saw elderly Asian men, black youths, white housewives, tourists and locals all give donations.  | | The Erik Lajko Blues Punk Band |
There’s something compelling about his performance. His left foot didn’t stop beating. He’s hunched up and low down, but he didn’t seem vulnerable. I really enjoyed listening to him play. I want to say: Thank you Erik Lajko,
for making me smile. ============  | | The Erik Lajko Blues Punk Band |
Erik, from Slovakia, says he'll be performing in Birmingham city centre for the next few days. He has a CD for sale. His email address is: eriklajko@hotmail.com | 
